I was reading about all this for one of my assignemnt and am confused. Am not sure how to differentiate between both of these? My assignment is an essay whose topic is:What trends do you envisage in the passenger car industry over the next few years? If anyone can give me ideas on what to write on it, will help me a lot. Thank you.
Fuel cells produce electricity from potential chemical energy without combustion, through an electrochemical process that combines oxygen and hydrogen to produce electricity, heat, and water. Unlike other types of fuel cells (like generic Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells) which require pure hydrogen as a fuel, Direct Methanol Fuel Cells enable this electrochemical process without the need to reform complex hydrocarbon fuel molecules (including methanol) into pure hydrogen.
Hydrogen is an explosive gas and could be used in a piston type engine like gasoline. But I think a more effective way to use it is the fuel cell that uses hydrogen to make electricity.
Fuel cells generate electricity via a chemical process. In a car, this electricity is then used to run an electric motor (like they have in hybrid cars now-a-days), which is what makes the car go. A hydrogen powered engine, so to speak, is one that just burns the hydrogen just like current cars do gasoline. The hydrogen is pumped into a chamber, caused to explode, with the result that the expanding explosion pushes down on a piston, which is what makes the car go. So in a fuel cell, hydrogen is used to generate electrical energy with which to make the car go, while in a non-fuel cell hydrogen car, hydrogen is used to generate mechanical energy with which to make the car go.
